When an Edgar Allan Poe gothic classic collides with queer cabaret, environmental collapse, and the politics of survival, the result is searing new theatrical experience The Masque of the Red Death. Created and directed by multidisciplinary artist and director Stella Kulagowski, the work makes its world premiere on April 8–12 at The Assembly Theatre in Toronto.
Immersive and incendiary, Kulagowski’s reimagining of The Mask of the Red Death is no dusty period piece. It is a living, breathing spectacle where “queer virtues become tools of resistance and liberation”. In the story, it’s a time of plague. A wealthy founder named Prospero invites hand-picked guests to take refuge in his fortress of excess. In the process, he welcomes in a troupe of performers with revolution on their minds. At the centre of this powder keg stands Prospero’s trusted assistant Ariadne, who is torn between loyalty and liberation, as the performers execute the intricate choreography of their plan for justice.
“The Masque of the Red Death is a bold, immersive reimagining of Poe’s classic tale that speaks to imminent environmental collapse with a searing critique of wealth inequality,” explains Kulagowski. “Set in a sanctuary where the ultra-rich shelter from outside devastation, the production follows a group of queer performers whose cabaret acts gradually evolve into revolutionary action.” Their entertainment becomes ammunition against the privileged few who believe wealth can buy salvation from a dying world.
The show holds up a kinetic, multidisciplinary mirror to our fractured world: “Audiences can expect a genre-bending experience that blends cabaret (from breakdance to burlesque to contortion) and immersive theatre to explore how true safety isn’t found in wealth or walls, but in community, acceptance, and collective action.” To execute this vision, the production features original music by Yahenda, and a dynamic cast that includes Parham Rownaghi as Darius Prospero; Rachel Manson as Ariadne; W Kulagowski as Creation; Eli Holliday as Love; Nailah Renuka as Tolerance; Rennaldo Quinicot as Pride; Rosalind Saunders as Joy; Bryna Bella as Generosity; Joy Thompson as Community.
Privilege vs Progress
Kulagowski first envisioned the piece at the pandemic’s peak, when the chasm between celebrity privilege and the struggles of the common person was at its most pronounced. They pinpoint a moment “when one of the Kardashians had a party on a private island while I was out of work. And everyone was isolating and terrified, and so many were dying.” Despite the pandemic’s recession, the impetus behind The Masque of the Red Death has only become “even more” urgent “as we witness different kinds of environmental collapse around the world, and the vastly different ways it affects those who have, and those who have not.”
The show’s setting of a high-tech luxury compound where billionaires isolate themselves from global ruin is drawn directly from real life. “I literally read a news article that outlined [Meta owner and billionaire Mark] Zuckerberg’s massive underground bunker on Hawaii,” notes Kulagowski, “and this was just when the wildfires were happening on the islands and native Hawaiians were begging tourists not to go there.” They find it “sickening that so few people hold so much of the world’s wealth (and therefore power), and they do nothing to help the majority of the world that is suffering so badly.”
“It shocks me every day that we all know this and just continue to let it happen,” they note. Of course, the performers in the play have a different idea, and Kulagowski purposely flips the script to explore the drivers of their cathartic counter-narrative. “In the original Poe, the seven chambers of Prince Prospero’s abbey traditionally represent the seven deadly sins. I was inspired to take these seven vices and invert them into queer virtues inspired by the Progress Flag.” So instead of a focus on sin leading to downfall, these virtues—Creation, Generosity, Love, Community, Pride, Joy, and Tolerance—become inspirational tools of resistance and liberation. “Each character’s reaction to the plot – and their respective ‘moral play’ cabaret acts”, notes are inspired by these virtues.”
Performance plus participation
Though the politics are clearly urgent, Kulagowski’s weapon of choice is performance, not polemic. With a background in dance, burlesque and cabaret, Kulagowski believes that the way to people’s hearts is through art. “Sing me a song about it, or do a dance about it, and I’m far more likely to be moved than by hearing a speech,” they nod. After all, “histories were traditionally told in poetry and song. And when we witness the performers’ acts, we don’t just comprehend their revolution intellectually; we feel it in our bodies.”
This ethos permeates the immersive format of the show, where audience members become more than just passive witnesses. They are implicated, enlisted, and ultimately asked to make a harrowing decision that affects the outcome of the story. “Minimal spoilers here, but the audience does get to decide if one of the characters lives or dies in the end,” reveals Kulagowski. “We ask the audience to decide who is complicit in the hoarding and exclusionary behaviours of the billionaire bunker dwellers.’ The critical question to reckon with: “Does your proximity to wealth and your participation in dividing the rich from poor make you part of it? Or are you just doing what you can to survive?”
With a formal vote being taken, this is theatre as moral reckoning—and by design, the choices are fraught: “I hope there isn’t a right answer,” offers Kulagowski. “And I hope that whatever decision the audience makes doesn’t make them feel entirely good.” For The Masque of the Red Death is not about offering tidy solutions. It’s about kindling questions: “My revolution isn’t just about destroying systems but about imagining and embodying new possibilities.”
And The Masque of the Red Death is also about the action that must accompany imagination: “I hope the audience understands that the new world our performers start to create (which is far from perfect in itself) wasn’t made simply through speeches or manifestos, but through art that transforms hearts first, minds second, and systems last.”
The Masque of the Red Death is generously supported by a Community ONE Rainbow Grant, and Kulagowski hopes this world premiere is “just the first run of something that grows into an even greater immersive experience.” Join the revolution, feel the glitter-fuelled rage, and cast your vote. Reserve tickets on eventbrite.ca.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2025
